Conservation GIS is rapidly moving into the cloud and taking on many new open access forms available to audiences well beyond traditional GIS practicioners. The "Web Mapping for Conservation" program is a free open source design & hosting program for conservation groups with data they want to share online. It started with a small group of NGO's and NGO-focused web development firms building collaborative maps and sharing applications online. Our first workshop in 2010 covered many how-to-do-it techniques for cloud GIS, collaborative design, open source, API technologies, and project management. Powerpoints, videos, whitepapers and source code are posted here. For more information, contact the ESRI Conservation Program at ecp2 at esri dot com

These viewers test a map overlay design for conservation web mapping that we hope to release as a map template in the coming months. The basic principle builds from the ESRI effort to design global basemap services specifically for use as standards-based web cartography. For conservation, the task is then to add conservation thematic data on top of hose existing bases seamlessly. For those basemaps to be visible and useable, added themes need to have 2 types of transparency: viewer-based using variable controls, and/or data-based using symbologies that avoid solid fill polygons. The overlay design also classifies conservation layers into 2 basic types of data: Landscape data classifies the land into various wall-to-wall conservation categories, such as protected areas maps, conservation plans and land use maps. Operational data represents specific items that need to be symbolized within the landscape context, such as species ranges, tracking data, sightings, events and proposed projects. The goal of the conservation template is therefore to combine the basemap with a middle thematic layer of landscape data and a top operational layer. The project wiill also improve and expand how credits, logos and links can be embedded in map windows and viewers to ensure author acknowledgement. When complete, the Conservation Template will include: Example MXD files with custom symbologies for landscape and operational layers, javascript source code for transparency controls, and proposed feature classifications for different types of conservation maps and plans.